Clark's Discount Auto Parts — Local services in Bellflower

Short version: Don't shop here. Bad service and bad products.

Long version: I ordered a dryer filter for a 1993 Subaru Legacy compressor from the online store, and it was a reasonable price: twelve or so dollars and five bucks for shipping. I called after ordering thinking I made a mistake in my shipping option, but the person on the phone was helpful in fixing my confusion, and I thought everything was fine. A few days later the part comes, and I bring it to my mechanic along with my new compressor from another dealer, hoping to replace the old setup.

I figured everything was taken care of, but not long after I get a call from my mechanic; he says that the filter isn't for a 1993 Subaru Legacy. I assume that there must be a mistake, so I go in. Now, I don't know much about cars, but I could see immediately that this was the wrong part. The filter Clark's shipped me had two triple hole female connections on top while the actual one has two, two hole female connections, and the part from Clark's was significantly larger to top it off. This meant that it didn't fit both the new and old compressors, and was useless. It was also most certainly not the part I had ordered.

Now I'm a little incensed since I expect to get what I purchase, so I call Clark's up in order to return the part. After explaining my situation to him, the man on the phone says that "I probably won't want to return the part". Now, why would I possibly not want to return the wrong part after spending money on both it and the shipping? It's not a lot of money, but it's my money and I paid them for a product that they failed to deliver, costing me both time and money on the product and with the mechanic labor. The man not so helpfully explains that, in order to return the part, I need to pay twenty dollars shipping (four times what it cost to send it to me to begin with!) as well as 20% of the product cost for "restocking fees". Right there he expects me to pay almost twice the cost of the product itself just to return it! Any decent company would apologize for shipping the wrong part and do everything they could to make it right, not make me lose even more money so that they get their part back and push me even more in the red.

Now I tell him that's obviously B.S. (but not so politely). He seems confused at this, and asks, "how is it B.S."? I tell him that I'm not going to pay them even more money to fix their mistake, to which he says something to the effect of "then I guess I can't help you". I say no you can't, and I can hear him slam the phone down, ending the call.

Even a child knows that you don't rip people off, but clearly Clark and his employees don't care about that. The product they shipped wasn't what I ordered, and when I went to get my money back they wanted me to fork over even more cash to them. It's a clever racket alright; if Clark's messes up an order, they either get to keep the full price because the customer doesn't want to pay more money to return the part, or they get the unused part back to resell, plus a fifth of the part cost as pure profit. It's as clever as it is dishonest.

I advise everybody to avoid Clark's. They ship you the wrong products, have bad customer service, and try to...

I thank God for this place….I’ve been going to Clarks for years. I’ve bought parts for my Cadillac Escalade, and now my Hyundai Genesis. Just recently I was quoted $1400 for one wheel hub, a wheel-bearing wore out. Peter the mechanic at Cal Auto in Garden Grove quoted me an outrageous $1,400.00 for just one wheel bearing, $400 for front brakes, $620 for a splash guard, also a wheel alignment that was going to cost me approximately $300! Seriously…Who can freaking afford that? Not me. So I skipped my appointment at Cal (rip-off) Auto and decided to call around. The unhelpful guy at Hyundai dealership in Tustin said, to fix my wheel hub it would cost me about $700.00; however the part was back ordered and he had no idea when it would be available. So, he gave me the Hyundai part number and told me to call around; the Hyundai dealerships in Tennessee, or in Texas may or may not have it. But, if I did get lucky and I found the part, they would ship it directly to my house and not there to the them, at the dealership??? OMG!!! What?!?! I was so frustrated. I had no idea that getting my car fixed was going to be such a troubling experience. I couldn’t believe how awful and lazy the dealership guy was being and after finding out what a scam artist, over pricing SOB Peter at Cal Auto is, well let’s just say his actions won’t go unnoticed. So my next call was to Clark’s. I gave ‘E’ for Efron an ‘E’ for Effort! He was outstanding!! He took the part number that Hyundai gave me and Wa-la he had it!! I got both rear, right & left wheel-hubs and Front & back brakes, the same day, and all for just a little bit over $300. E was great…! He didn’t try to deplete my bank account in fact he tried his hardest to save me as much money as possible!!! Then he went above & beyond again and introduced me to the best mechanic ever….Santiago!!! He came to my house, he was respectful and honest, He fixed my car in two hours and charged me the same amount I paid for the parts!! My car is running the best it ever has run before!! It was all just amazing!! Thank you E. Your integrity is greatly appreciated...

Really lousy place, the low prices they have do not compensate for how bad they make you feel.. okay, here goes my bad experience. Call to ask about my alternator. They tell me that they have it in stock. that it is the correct one, I get a ride I am going to pick it up I start to remove the one that is in my car and it turns out that it is not the same one , the plug it was different so as I was urgent I bought another one through OfferUp because I do not have another car so I needed it , so I am going to return it and they tell me the they can’t because it was dirty when it was not even installed, and they ask for PIN number and plate to verify and they still give me the wrong one , and it was just the grease from one's hands when doing mechanics !! So I went twice and a chubby guy who in fact was the one who misbehaved with me said he couldn't do anything so I told him to give me back my deposit and since they had given me the bad part they didn't return my deposit either so I lost my deposit I lost my money and I kept a part that they gave me badly and it doesn't even work for my car!! really race better go to autzone or safer places these employees here plus the overweight boy from the pure corner you can see that he hates his job and the truth is that one as poor as he is those 150 that they stole from me for them they are nothing but it is very...